Contemporary Model for Water Management and Alternative Approaches

Water is a natural good with the characteristic of being interpreted in different forms due to its transversality (Some examples of the importance of water based on the multiple ways in which it can be interpreted are, among others: an ecological way, establishing it as an essential factor for the sustaining of life; an economic one, through the exegesis of considering it an essential input in the provision of material goods which constitute the basis of social welfare; an institutional one, interpreted as an element essential to the formation of collective prosperity; a social one, as a vehicle for stability which allows the cohesion and reproduction of the system; a sanitary one, regarding it as a determining factor in the quality of life of the population). Of course, they are all equally important and occur simultaneously, which in turn highlights how significant and essential its availability is. Water availability is at the center of public welfare formation and prosperity evolution in all society. Nevertheless, it is a topic of growing public and institutional interest in the case of arid and semiarid societies, and those with heterogeneity in its distribution, such as the Mexican one. This is because the allocation processes to be encouraged should yield the maximum effect of public welfare from its exploitation process. This chapter puts forth the need to supplement water management capacities in Mexico through the incorporation of alternative analytical efforts such as those of water footprint and virtual water, which may strengthen the processes to identify the best practices in the exploitation of this resource, according to the potential supply sources and may foster the configuration of new arrangements for the required public infrastructure and investments development that aims at reducing vulnerability in water availability, derived from the institutional strategy that consolidated over the long term.